"A splendid and original book. For many readers it will effectively reorient future study of English Renaissance politics from Elizabeth to the Restoration. Boehrer's focused analysis of incest deals with the complex relations of father and monarch, and more broadly, of kingship and kinship in various cultural languages."—Constance Jordan

In Monarchy and Incest in Renaissance England, Bruce Thomas Boehrer argues that a preoccupation with incest is built not the dominant social and cultural concerns of early modern England. Proceeding from a study of Henry III's divorce and succession legislation, through the reigns of Elizabeth I, James I, and Charles I, this work examines the interrelation between family politics and literary expression in and around the English royal court.

Bruce Thomas Boehrer is Bertram H. Davis Professor of English at Florida State University. A life-long parrot fancier, he is the author of Parrot Culture: Our 2500-Year-Long Fascination with the World's Most Talkative Bird and The Fury of Men's Gullets: Ben Jonson and the Digestive Canal, both available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.